Africa is Facing “a debt crisis of deep moral urgency”: UN Official at Church's G20 Social Summit Gathering

Johannesburg, 20 November, 2025 / 6:56 PM

The United Nations (UN) Women Adviser for East and Southern Africa has decried the continent's increasing debt terming it as a crisis that requires serious moral intervention.

In her keynote address on Wednesday, November 19 at the G20 social summit side event that was organized by the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC), Jaqueline Utamuriza Nzisabria unveiled statistics indicating gradual increase of Africa’s debt and noted that the crisis constrains development capacity in most African countries.

“Africa is facing a debt crisis of deep moral and developmental urgency,” Mrs. Utamuriza said in her presentation at the summit that was held in Johannesburg on the theme, “A Jubilee for Solidarity: Towards a People and Planet Driven Financial Architecture for Africa.”

She added, “According to the recent data, Africa’s external debts have been rising …From 2013 to now, we've actually grown the debt by around 20 percent, and we are sitting at 25 percent of nations’ GDP, which is, I think, kind of very crazy.”

“Servicing the debt constrains government capacity to invest in crucial sectors, such as health, education, social protection that is more and more needed, and now the very relevant climate resilience infrastructure,” she said.

The UN representative said that in 2024, “the interest in debt service alone amounted to 30 percent of government revenues, just servicing the debt, not even in many African countries, leaving fewer resources for other essential public services.”

The one day summit that SACBC organized in collaboration with Caritas Africa, Caritas South Africa, and SACBC Justice & Peace brought together Church leaders, academia, UN agencies, civil society, youth and women representatives to address Africa’s escalating debt crisis and its impact on education, health, climate action and social well-being.

In her November 19 keynote address, the UN official said that the debt crisis on the world’s second largest continent is no longer just a financial issue but a justice issue.

“We are seeing unrest in many countries, and these unrests are not necessarily just about the debt, but the debt compounds the issues, and probably even is at the center, because most of the social unrest is based on issues of service delivery and access to basic rights across the continent,” she said.

She said that the debt burden disproportionately affects women and girls through cuts to public health, and the shrinking of social spending, and the constrained fiscal space for gender equitable development.

On what the UN is doing to address the debt crisis, Mrs. Utamuriza said that the UN, in its flagship report in 2024, “Unpacking Africa's Debt Towards a Lasting and Durable Solution”, laid out a comprehensive diagnosis of the debt.

To address the crisis, she said that the UN Secretary General “has urged a more just system, more concessional financing, and stronger multilateral development banks and instruments that recognize vulnerability, not just GDP growth.”

Based on this, she said that there should be more social indicators considered, not only just lending.

“If we can take a cue, many of the regional development banks should be strengthened to actually take up the role of being the lender, rather than resorting to more expensive private sector banks,” she said.

She said that the UN has also recommended a reform agenda calling for a rethinking of the international and financial structure.

Mrs. Utamuriza said that the UN is rooting for “capital increase for multilateral development banks, predictable debt instruments that link debt sustainability to development outcomes, not short-term yield and private financiers, strengthening domestic resource mobilization and debt management, so that African countries reclaim greater fiscal sovereignty.”

She added that the UN is also encouraging greater domestic resource mobilization and improved management of national resources as essential steps toward ultimately becoming debt-free.

“Our voices, especially those rooted in moral and ethical frameworks, have tremendous power, especially when they are united as one voice,” she said, and added, “The UN system is supporting these voices. And the UN system is supporting Africa-led proposals and Africa-led negotiations.”